CESA Blog
The California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) is excited to announce an open call for candidates to fill the position of At-Large Board Member.
California Governor Gavin Newsom released his proposed 2024-5 budget, which is the first step of a months-long budget negotiation process with the legislature.
CESA has named Scott Murtishaw as the new Executive Director to lead CESA as it transitions into a new organizational structure to better serve CESA’s members into the future.
As the threats of climate change materialize with increased magnitude and frequency, load-serving entities and regulatory authorities have issued decarbonization goals and, in some cases, analyzed a myriad of potential strategies to attain their targets. This is the context in which most discussions regarding the benefits of energy storage systems (ESS) historically have taken place.
Last week, the Golden State’s energy grid faced its most grueling operational conditions since August 2020, when a combination of factors drove the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to utilize rolling blackouts to maintain grid stability and avoid additional outages.
The California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA), a membership-based organization committed to advancing the role of energy storage in the electric power sector, applauds the signing of AB 2625, granting an exemption to the Subdivision Map Act for energy storage systems to support California’s grid resilience and decarbonization goals.
AB 2625 is a California bill sponsored by CESA and authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting, which is heading to the governor’s desk for signing. AB 2625 is an example of the material policy steps CESA takes to build and strengthen workable and viable energy storage markets.
CESA’s new Western Energy Storage Taskforce (WEST) aims to ensure that energy storage markets are accelerated in the west. More specifically, WEST will ensure that storage in all its forms is properly represented in utility and state grid planning and procurement venues across Western markets.
California’s clean energy transition shows no signs of slowing down. New developments demonstrate continued, steady progress for the Golden State to successfully reach its ambitious decarbonization goal, while also strengthening grid reliability and resilience heading into the challenging summer operating season. Earlier this month, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) reported a new record for supply of renewable energy on the grid, reaching 97.6 percent of all generation.
Given the scale and scope of the challenge ahead of us to achieve climate and storage goals, CESA gathered members and key stakeholders in the California energy ecosystem on March 1, 2022 at our annual Market Development Forum (MDF) to discuss how to further a culture of safety in the industry and what is needed to work effectively with fire and permitting departments across the state to prepare for 300% more projects to be deployed in the next ten years, or the Decade of Execution. Read more to learn key takeaways from leaders in the safety and permitting industry!
At our Annual Market Development Forum earlier this month, our featured speakers were tasked with identifying key areas of focus or specific actions to ensure a successful decade of execution. While this event is closed-door to media and recordings, we have distilled the most urgent action items from their responses.
Energy storage in California started the new year with a jolt. Late last week, investor-owned utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) announced it intends to deploy nearly 1,600 megawatts (MW) of incremental battery energy storage by mid-2024. The announcement is just one of the first in what promises to be a very active year – and decade -- for the state’s energy storage industry.
Today, there’s no doubt about the foundational role energy storage plays in supporting a resilient, reliable, clean, and flexible electric grid in California, the world’s largest and most mature market. Energy storage is unquestionably a success story for the state — and a technology that I believe California’s grid operator and its consumers now cannot live without.
Yesterday, the US Department of Energy launched the Long Duration Storage Shot, which sets a goal to reduce the cost of grid-scale, long duration energy storage by 90% within the decade to support a clean, reliable grid. Learn more about the initiative, and learn how California’s energy storage leadership will accelerate the DOE's efforts to bring down the cost of LDES.
The California Independent Service Operator (CAISO) is making history this summer by integrating thousands of MW of new energy storage resources. At the same time, grid operators are preparing for the challenges of a potentially hot and dry season. We hosted a webinar with Mark Rothleder, SVP and COO of CAISO, to discuss how storage providers can support reliability under challenging conditions. Read our recap!
On February 24-25, nearly 200 energy storage leaders representing >80 organizations gathered in one virtual space – without media or recordings – to have open conversations about achieving grid reliability in California through energy storage. Read their take-aways here!
Many CESA members should be aware that the ongoing heat-storms and rolling blackouts in California are an important moment in the California electric system. While it is difficult to guess ‘what will all this mean for the grid moving forward?’, here is a reasonably informed opinion on the situation and how energy storage has and can continue to provide resource adequacy and capacity to the California grid.
Now more than ever, CESA reaffirms its longstanding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We add our voice to those demanding justice and equality.
A challenge for the state of California is that protocols for shelter-in-place are changing quickly, and we’re seeing county level protocols that can often exceed state ones. Here is some ‘need-to-know’ information to support your decisions about keeping workers in the field in California.
In February 2020, the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) held its annual convening of CESA members, policy makers, regulators, environmental advocates, utilities and load serving entities, grid operators to take a headline view of the future, and specifically, “The Next Ten Years.” What would the energy storage headline be 2030? CESA aims to share this headline: “California Achieves 60% Carbon-Free Grid with 11,000+ MW of deployed energy storage and spurs economic boom!”
There is a fascination among countries with racing to build the tallest building in the world. It has become a universal symbol of wealth, prestige, and sophistication and becomes a monument to past wonders of the world.
Many years from now, historians will likely mark 2017 as a critical period in the fight against (or for) climate change. The election of President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of a backslide on climate change and clean-energy policy. While many pundits expect backsliding to occur at a federal level, such as with the US EPA’s Clean Power Plan or with the Paris Climate Accord, it remains to be seen how California’s policies will play in the future. Could federal rules or court outcomes regress California from its clean energy and clean transportation efforts?
Imagine you run a small business. You incur a number of business expenses, ranging from direct labor, to cost of materials, to freight and others. Normally, these expenses would be deductible since they are part of the cost of doing business.
In a fast-moving and innovative industry like energy storage, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement to deploy this versatile and flexible energy technology as quickly as possible. That said, while the industry should continue to strive to quickly commercialize and deploy energy storage, we must also stress the safety and reliability of these technologies.
In 1894, civilization faced a pollution crisis. The London Times newspaper predicted... “In 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of horse manure.” This became known as the ‘Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894’. The terrible situation was debated in 1898, at the world’s first international urban planning conference in New York, but no solution could be found. It seemed urban civilization was doomed.
Here in San Francisco Bay Area, entrepreneurs are taught to continuously improve on their new products, create ‘build-measure-learn’ feedback loops, and change-up or ‘pivot’ a product in fast cycles. Such principles promise success for many tech startups, particularly in the global hub of innovation and entrepreneurship, Silicon Valley.
Energy storage is a silo buster! It represents an asset class that transcends the usual asset classes of generation, load, and transmission and distribution infrastructure by being able to operate as all three asset types. Energy storage is the LeBron James of energy technologies.
It is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. When it comes to energy storage becoming a greater part of the tool-kit for enabling a greener, more efficient, and cost-effective electrical grid, we’ve taken that first step and surely a few beyond. Some of these steps, however, have been easier than others. As many of CESA’s members recall, those earliest steps often felt like they were uphill, in the snow, and into the wind!
The gas leak at Aliso Canyon’s underground storage facility has become infamous as the largest natural gas leak in U.S. history. The carbon footprint from the gas leak is said to be larger than the Deepwater Horizon leak in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, and has left the facility with less than one-fifth of its capacity. Southern California Gas Company (SoCal Gas) is now barred from storing gas at the Aliso Canyon facility until all wells are thoroughly investigated, and determined to be safe.